Christmas Mall Day
by Orange Ratchet
Summary: Having finished up their Christmas shopping, Arnold Shortman and Rhonda Lloyd are having lunch together, sharing some sweet moments between themselves and current going-ons! Nothing much to say but a nice lunch date between the two! Arnold x Rhonda; Arnda


Since we're getting close to Christmas, someone by the name of Johnny Mankins sent me this request for an Arnda Christmas story, and I figured, why not? Well, here's the thing, though. There were already two stories featuring the Arnda pairing in a Christmas like setting, and even though one of the stories was a one-sided Arnda, both of them were great in their own right. I just don't think I can top what those two one-shots did, but hey, I'm good with doing an Arnda Christmas one-shot! So here we go! Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

It was another snowy day in the city of Hillwood. Children were ice skating out in the park, adults were busy working their butts off during the Christmas rush... and down somewhere, inside the mall, were two kids stopping for lunch in the food court, with a few shopping bags between the two, indicating that they had just finished Christmas shopping. As people would guess, it was resident town helper, Arnold Shortman and the gossip girl of Hillwood, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd.

"Thanks again for helping out with the Christmas shopping, charming." Rhonda sighed in relief as she took another sip from her diet soda. "I don't know just how the holiday rush sneaks up on a girl!"

"Believe me, Rhonda, I'm more than happy to assist." Arnold gave a small grin as he raised an eyebrow. "Though, really, three pairs of brand new Spumoni boots for the girls seems a bit... excessive."

"Oh, I know." The rich girl sighed before grinning. "At least you talked me out of making a big mistake in terms of blowing a hole in my allowance."

"You know that's what I'm here for." Arnold smirked.

Rhonda laughed as she playfully pushed him a bit. "You prat. That's not the ONLY reason you're here."

"Prat?" Arnold raised an eyebrow towards his girlfriend. "Guess you recently went to England?"

Rhonda blushed a bit as she nodded. Arnold paused, thinking, before giving a grin. "I can just imagine you talking with a proper and prim English accent right about now."

The rich girl giggled as she leaned closer and nuzzled his nose. "Oh, guv'nor, surely you jest." As both she and Arnold laughed a bit, Rhonda tried to relax a little as she looked up to him, "Seriously though, my recent trip turned out so great! In fact, my parents are considering taking me there again on our next vacation!"

"I don't suppose you can take a plus one?" Arnold raised an eyebrow.

"Well... I'll see what I can do, but it's pretty tight at the moment." Rhonda playfully considered the offer. "But I'll see if my parents are more than willing to take you. After all the stress, I'm sure you deserve at least ONE vacation."

Arnold smiled as he looked out towards the hallways of the mall, seeing more people carrying shopping bags around and sighing, much to Rhonda's notice. "Hey, Arnold? Something on your mind?"

Arnold paused as he looked over towards his girlfriend. "It's just, it's hard to believe it's Christmas time once again. Even though my family's home and all, it's going to feel pretty strange that I won't be celebrating the unique holiday ways my grandma would usually do."

"Right, you did tell me your grandmother had unusual ways of celebrating holidays by putting them on different holidays." Rhonda giggled. "I believe Helga told me the other day that your boarding house always had a 'Fourth of Juls-giving' over there?"

"Is that what she calls it?" Arnold asked in surprise, before frowning. "Wait, how would Helga know that?"

Rhonda shrugged. "I don't know."

Arnold lowered his eyelids as he stared straight at Rhonda with his eyes. Rhonda sighed, "Come on, Arnold, not the 'look me straight in the eye' look. You know people crack easily when..." But as soon as Rhonda looked at Arnold's disapproving eyes, she held her head, "Okay, okay, I may have overheard a conversation between Phoebe and Helga I shouldn't have."

Arnold shook his head as the rich girl put a hand on her chest. "I can't help it, Arnold. I'm the gossip queen! Any gossip I pick up, I have to write it down or spread around. You're lucky I don't reveal too many secrets around unless they're important."

"You don't seem to spread any secrets I seem to have around though." Arnold noted.

"Because I respect you too much to do that." Rhonda explained to the football headed boy. "Arnold, you helped me out in many ways that I could never imagined, opened my eyes to new ideas that I never thought to try. True, being rich does have the benefits, and being one of the popular girls in school helps tremendously, but even then, I know I'm not immune to everything. I mean, look at me and Big Patty before we became friends. Just because I was haughty towards her, that doesn't mean she'd hesitate to punch me in the face..."

"You know she apologized to you for ruining one of your shoes." Arnold said, giving a blank stare towards her.

"That's because... well, you know me, Arnold, I'm not good at communications well. I mean, I did make glasses a fashion choice for a while AFTER I lead a geek revolution on the bus!" Rhonda giggled. "Let me tell you, it felt good and I think I understand a lot about the geeks."

"And yet, may I point out..." Arnold smirked.

"Oh, don't get started on that..." Rhonda sighed before looking towards Arnold. "Look, I get it. I have flaws, I'm not a perfect human being. Sometimes, I just can't help being a bit of a show-off. Sid can't help being a paranoid mess, Harold can't help being a bumbling bully that's soft-hearted, AND Curly can't stop being..." Rhonda paused as she and Arnold turned just in time to see Curly walking on his hands while simultaneously carrying some shopping bags with his feet. "...whatever it is he's currently doing right now."

"Huh." Arnold blinked as he and Rhonda watched Curly go past. "This is a new one. I don't think I've seen Curly walk on his hands before."

"Well, his weird friends seem to be doing it as well." Rhonda said, pointing to the strange characters that seem to be doing the same thing Curly was doing, before turning back to Arnold, "But anyway, my point is, I can't help being who I am, Arnold. If I told you to stop helping people, it'd be like telling you to stop being you. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Arnold paused as he thought about it, before turning to Rhonda. "You know, I guess I do see your point."

"Exactly!" Rhonda smiled. "And I love you for helping others. Heck, I'm sure a LOT of people do."

Arnold looked over to Rhonda, before grinning. "I guess I never thought of it that way, before. But seriously, Rhonda, I'm not saying you should stop being you, I'm just saying... tone down yourself just a little bit."

Rhonda gave a sigh. "Okay, okay..." She then looked towards the clock as she grinned. "Well, I suppose our ride will be coming any minute. Arnold, I don't suppose you'd like a ride home? I'm sure my darling parents won't mind."

"Well, if you're offering, then..." Arnold smiled as he picked up some shopping bags. "...who am I to say no to a lovely lady like yourself?"

Rhonda giggled as she grabbed a bit of her own shopping bags, before kissing the boy on the cheek. "Have I ever told you you're sweet?"

"Only about a hundred times." Arnold blushed a bit from the kiss.

"In that case, how about a hundred and one?" Rhonda giggled as she and Arnold left the food court and started to head out of the mall. As they did so, Arnold turned to Rhonda in curiosity.

"Say, Rhonda?" Arnold raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you got your Christmas shopping done?"

"I'm pretty sure I got it all..." Rhonda gave a small smirk as she winked towards Arnold, making him blush. "What about you? Got your shopping done?"

"Eh... that's top secret." Arnold simply said with a smirk.

Rhonda shook her head. "I know I recently said this, but you can be a bit of a prat!"

"Hey, you keep your secrets, I keep mine!" Arnold laughed as Rhonda joined in the laughter as well. And as both of them saw Rhonda's parents's car arrive to take them back to their homes in Hillwood, the two looked at each other with care in their eyes, planning separately to wrap their gifts for their respective other...

It was only a matter of time before Christmas would be around the corner...

* * *

And this one-shot is done! How did you guys like it? Okay, so this isn't the best Arnda Christmas one-shot, it was more Christmas planning and hanging out, but what's wrong with a nice little hang-out during the Christmas season? Like I said before, I don't think I'll ever top the Arnda Christmas one-shots that came before it, as they did that better, but I think this one's okay as it is. If you guys want to read another Arnda Christmas one-shot though, I will recommend you go over and read these two stories by two different authors...

"Christmas Kiss" by SideshowJazz1

AND...

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" by blindbat1192.

Those two fics did the Arnda Christmas thing better than I probably could, and both are pretty good reads. Check them out whenever you have the time! Also, again, thank you to Johnny Mankins who suggested I do this Arnda Christmas one-shot! Anyway, thank you all for reading, and have a very wonderful Christmas!


End file.
